191 



Parliament, in attacking an opponent, called him a 'Coelacanth' on 

 the grounds that from his long silence in that august assembly 

 it was a surprise to find him still alive. The able retort was that 

 the Coelacanth lived long, had great endurance, and never spoke 

 unless it had something to say. At least a thousand people told 

 us personally that while it had been very good of Dr. Malan to do 

 what he did, it was only right that he should have, and of course 

 everyone knew that General Smuts would have done at least 

 the same if he had been there. We just smiled ! It is significant 

 that literally a flood of letters and telegrams of congratulations 

 and thanks had been sent to Dr. Malan, not only from South 

 Africa; and among them were many from persons, from angling 

 and other clubs, societies, and institutions, composed mainly of 

 those opposed to his political principles. Many of those who had 

 done this told us personally or wrote to say so. 



When the general election early in 1953 showed the trend of 

 public opinion by returning Malan to power with a greatly in- 

 creased majority, one close but very sore old friend, to whom this 

 represented almost the end of the world, wrote in accusation that 

 'you and your darned old Coelacanth helped this on*, and this 

 view was very widely held. But in that form it was certainly not 

 correct. If Dr. Malan gained any advantage from the Coelacanth 

 affair, it was because he had earned it himself; it was entirely his 

 own doing. Not only did he put himself out on my behalf when 

 no one could have blamed him if he had not, but he took the 

 decision alone and the very considerable risk that this entailed 

 entirely alone. It was a risk, especially at that time. It was very 

 different with Smuts, who would not have had to take any risk 

 to help me, but who would not even spare a few moments to 

 hear me. 



The series of events which had compelled me to seek assistance 

 from both Smuts and Malan had been almost fantastic in their 

 similarity, not only in the subject of my appeal, but in each case 

 by the most curious coincidence the climax had come not long 

 before a critical general election. It was even more fantastic that 

 each of these two men had, almost dramatically, within a very 

 short time afterwards been himself treated by his own people 

 almost exactly as he had treated me — the one spurned, the other 

 supported. One could not escape the conclusion that this indicated 



